Artist and gadget builder Drew Northcott, of Bicester, UK, has just spent the last five months building his own Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet (no, not a
tablet computer). Now of course, Drew could just have gone the normal way and bought the
21-incher for $3000, but as he cleverly pointed out: "where's the fun in just buying something?" He told us that after having begun the project on June 8 with nothing more than an idea, he finally "bolted the case shut" on November 9 -- almost exactly five months after having begun his odyssey. How'd our intrepid young artist do it? Basically he gutted a working Dell 1501fp monitor, stripped out the screen, and put it together with the magnetic sensor from the tablet into the Wacom case, along with a 2-millimeter acrylic panel over the screen for protection. However, that's a much simpler explanation than his 18-part online series, where Drew's got tons of photos to document each and every exciting step. So the final question is, how much did all these parts (time costs aside) run our good friend Mr. Northcott? Roughly £100 ($190), a heckuva savings by any measurement.
[Thanks,
Chris M.]
posted Nov 16th 2006 7:25AM
Very nice idea.
Great though Cintiqs are, they are vastly over-priced as Drew shows. Even taking time to get the chassis, express buttons and software custom made would bring in a Cintiq clone at well under the $3000 dollars it costs here in the U.K. A manufacturer could make a damn good copy for less than half Wacom charge and there are masses of artists, both pro and amateur who would snap them up.
Why no other tablet or monitor manufacturer has not spotted this gaping market is a mystery.
Take your idea to a manufacturer Drew, you will make a million quid.
Has anyone tried out this kind of device; http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000UTIHGK/nextag1-21/ref=nosim
No pressure sensitivity, but no techy knowledge needed to install, it's just plug and play and at £120, it could be worth looking at.
Definitely Kudos to him. One of the Best DIY in recent memory.
That's AWESOME. I've been lusting over one of those tablets. After seeing them, it makes my graphire look like a toy. I wonder if it's as precise as a Cintiq? I've never used one, but I assume one of the differences from a cintiq and just a touchscreen is dpi & also the distance between the top layer of the screen & the actual pixels. Too far and your pen tip would appear to be off by a little bit. Correct?
im writing an email to him now. hopefully he can make me one too!! hahhaha
awesome DIY!!!!
Great work.
The price isn't really something you can replicate. He got lucky and got some components dirt cheap
a heckuva savings by any measurement.
Well, unless you count "time" as a measurement.
But seriously, cool project!
so, i'm assuming that he didn't factor in the cost of the Dell 1501fp, since the cheapest Dell lcd you can get is $189.
that's a bit misleading.
Actually, if you would read it, you would notice that he factored *everything* in. You just didn't seem to factor in "eBay".
"Back to ebay, there are lots of monitors in various states of brokenness, many of them showing the classic symptoms of dead backlights, then I spot a Dell 1501fp with a failing top-light. This is ideal, the screen clearly works and the photo shows no pressure marks
38 and it's mine, cost so far 44.33, now wheres me toolkit?"
The price obviously included the lcd ;)
But yeah, he got lucky with the parts but you could still easily build one of these for less than 300.
Incredible... I'll definitely consider this for a summer project.
Hi
Great job done...need your help in order to make one for myself as well. can you please let me know as to how did you mange to get the sensors and intergare that with the LCD - can we use any LCD make or it has to be dell?/ and which pen is this as there is no cord attached to the pen...is it a battery operated pen?? - how can i get this pen?? Your help in this regard would be appreciable.
The Tablet pen do not use battery. Look here on how the pen or tablet work. http://www.wacom-components.com/english/technology/emr.html
This is just one type of technology but there are other method. Touchscreen use different design.
"..and put it together with the magnetic sensor from the tablet into the Wacom case,..."
He got it off from a still working tablet.
no quite a replacement for the cintiq 21ux. first of all it's smaller and doesn't have the context buttons...but more importantly, it doesn't have near the resolution or the pressure sensitivity of the cintiq 21ux. with a little bit of searching and patience, you can buy the discontinued 15ux on ebay...it's still outclassed in resolution and sesitivity when compared to the 21ux, but you can get it for around $500 (US) and it works.
I wonder how many people pronounce Bicester wrong when they read it.